2012's best TV shows | Robert Lloyd

Caption'Parks and Recreation' (NBC)

Trae Patton / NBC

In a year that unleashed political plotlines on "Political Animals," "Scandal," "The Newsroom" and the upcoming "1600 Penn," Amy Poehler still shines as newly elected city councilwoman Leslie Knope on "Parks and Recreation." Here are some new and interesting thing of 2012 in the order I wrote them down.

In a year that unleashed political plotlines on "Political Animals," "Scandal," "The Newsroom" and the upcoming "1600 Penn," Amy Poehler still shines as newly elected city councilwoman Leslie Knope on "Parks and Recreation." Here are some new and interesting thing of 2012 in the order I wrote them down. (Trae Patton / NBC)

Like "Louie" before it, triple-threat Lena Dunham's mumblecore comedy changes what "cinematic" means in the context of television: not the intimation/imitation of bigger-than-TV big-screen budgets it typically indicates but a kind of neo-New Wave guerrilla intelligence: believable talk in ordinary rooms, recorded in seemingly offhand yet memorable images.

Like "Louie" before it, triple-threat Lena Dunham's mumblecore comedy changes what "cinematic" means in the context of television: not the intimation/imitation of bigger-than-TV big-screen budgets it typically indicates but a kind of neo-New Wave guerrilla intelligence: believable talk in ordinary rooms, recorded in seemingly offhand yet memorable images. (Jojo Whilden / HBO)